Category Archives: Bible Verse Photos

The psalmist reminds us that our hearts do recognize an immanent, transcendent yet personal Voice calls us. It is up to us to take the time to listen and to respond.

AW Tozer, in “The Pursuit of God,” vividly reminds us, “God is here and God is speaking. God did not write a book and send it by messenger to be read at a distance by unaided minds. He spoke a Book and lives in His spoken words, constantly speaking a His words and causing them to persist across the years.”

As we stood on the brink of the South Rim and looked out over the magnificence of the Grand Canyon, I was reminded of an observation by Albert Einstein. He is quoted quite frequently now, as a figure who offers a bridge between science and religion. He did not have a doctrinal or dogmatic view of God, but he did deeply appreciate the mystery and the miracle between what the mind can see and figure out, and what lies beyond human comprehension. To him, man was NOT the measure of all things.

“The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand in rapt awe, is as good as dead, snuffed out like a candle. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I am a devoutly religious man.”

Harvey Cox takes this quote one step further: “Faith starts with awe. It begins with the mixture of wonder and fear all human beings feel toward the mystery that envelops us. But awe becomes faith only as it ascribes meaning to that mystery.” — “the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to Him.” Psalm 24:1

Henri Nouwen writes, “Yet somehow I have to alert you to the truth that what this is all about (the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus) is the most fundamental, the most far reaching event ever to occur in the course of history. If you don’t see and feel that for yourself, then the gospel can be, at most, interesting; but it can never renew your heart and make you a reborn human being. And rebirth is what you are called to–a radical liberation that sets you free from the power of death and empowers you to love fearlessly.” from Letters to Marc about Jesus

In the spring, when the waterfalls flow off the red sandstone cliffs, Zion becomes a Yosemite in technicolor. This is desert country. Water brings life to this other wise harsh environment. Like air, water is vital for our survival. We also live in a challenging emotional environment of hurts and disappointments. Where do we find the living water for our spiritual survival–or do we care to look, or give up our search once it seems too overwhelming?